1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a multilayer ceramic capacitor having a low defect rate and a high temperature load failure rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electronic component using a ceramic material such as a capacitor, an inductor, a piezoelectric element, a varistor, a thermistor, or the like, includes a ceramic main body made of a ceramic material, inner electrodes formed within the interior of the ceramic main body, and outer electrodes installed on a surface of the ceramic main body such that they are connected with the inner electrode.
Among ceramic electronic components, a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a plurality of stacked dielectric layers, inner electrodes disposed to face each other with a dielectric layer interposed therebetween, and outer electrodes electrically connected with the inner electrodes.
The multilayer ceramic capacitor is commonly used as a component of mobile communication devices such as computers, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), mobile phones, and the like, due to its advantages of being small, guaranteeing a high capacity, and being easily mounted.
Recently, as electronic products have been reduced in size and have developed multifunctionality, chip components have also become compact and highly functional, so a product of a multilayer ceramic capacitor which is small but has a high capacity is in demand.
In general, in manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor, a ceramic green sheet is manufactured and a conductive paste is printed onto the ceramic green sheet to form an inner electrode film. Tens to hundreds of ceramic green sheets, each with the inner electrode film formed thereon, are piled up in an overlapping manner to form a green ceramic stacked body. Thereafter, the green ceramic stacked body is compressed at a high temperature and with a high pressure into a hard green ceramic stacked body, which is then subjected to a cutting process to manufacture a green chip. The green chip is plasticized, fired, and polished, and outer electrodes are then formed to complete a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
Recently, as the multilayer ceramic capacitor has become compact with a large capacity, designers have attempted to design the ceramic stacked body such that it has thinner films and is multi-layered. Thus, as the ceramic green sheet is thinner and multi-layered, there is a difference in the thickness of the ceramic green sheet layer with inner electrodes formed thereon and in the thickness of the ceramic green sheet layer without an inner electrode, causing a difference in density after compression.
The difference in the thickness and density causes an internal structural defect such as a crack, a pore, and the like.
The problem of such an internal structural defect becomes severe as the multilayer ceramic capacitor is highly stacked, and the necessity of improving the problem increases.